Shifting Tides
by Caroline L'Amoure
Summary: Richard is a normal college guy who travels to his aunt's cottage on the weekend. All is normal until he gets pushed into a stream and transported to an entirely different world! Will he be able to work with Ariessa and Zachary and find a way back?
1. Chapter 1

Richard walked out of his last exam, a shiver running up his spine from the terrible dread that filled him. It had not gone well- screw the 8 hours of studying he had managed to squeeze in between work and sleep- apparently studying didn't matter to this beast of an exam. He let out a long sigh and shuffled down the hall, avoiding eye contact with the other people in the college, all looking as bedraggled as he was. Ah yes, the college disease- insomnia. There was a cure for it, but who had time for that?

He pressed the elevator button and waited as it descended down to the bottom level so he could finally drive home. What a long week- and now finally he had a chance to relax. He tried to think of the message his aunt had left on his machine back at the apartment- she had wanted him to go somewhere to see his family. He thought of all the dozens of cousins of his cooped up in one house and almost burst out in laughter when it reminded him of very hyper sardines trapped in a small can. He got into his car, drove out after swiping his card at the exit of the parking lot, and finally made his way home.

He trudged up the stairs to his apartment, looking with dismay up at the 'HAPPY EASTER' wreath still tacked to his door. His neighbor had wanted to add some 'festive cheer' to his otherwise dull door- he wasn't one to complain, but couldn't it at least NOT be covered in glitter and fluffy bunnies?  
>He walked into his apartment, throwing his coat on the counter and running his hand through his brown hair as he sighed in relief. How was the time to relax- maybe he would grab a beer and play Halo…<p>

He flinched as the phone rang again, sending the bells screaming through his head. He figured it was just another telemarketer and walked over to the small kitchen to make a meal.

"Richard?" The answering machine called out with his aunt's voice. "Are you there? I know you don't answer the phone you silly boy."

Richard rolled his eyes. Leave it to his aunt to insult him on an answering machine.

"Alright fine- I was wondering if you wanted to meet us out at the cottage and spend some time with your cousins? That nice blond girl will be there too- you know, the one you met when you were little? She's very pretty now you know."

"Oh stop it, woman!" Richard yelled in frustration to no one in particular. "I'm not going to be with a girl who's a 'gender studies' major- do you WANT me to get my nuts cut off in my sleep?" He growled. The 'cute blond girl' his aunt was describing had grown up from a sweet girl into a hot-headed feminist. For some reason all men were 'beasts' who had purely animal instincts and were hardly higher than the apes they were evolved from- including him, of course. Why the hell would he _ever_ want to be with a girl who would think he's stupid and rude?

"Either way, we've missed you these past holidays- I understand you work and-" Richard heard the beep that ended the message, grinning when he realized she had been cut off by the automatic end of the tape to conserve space. He chuckled and continued making food, looking up with surprise as the phone rang again, the answering machine blurting its message before beeping again.

"I hate your answering machine. If you have time this weekend, please come up to the cottage- your mom will be here too." The answering machine beeped this time to signal the end of the message.

"Aw, shit." Richard rubbed his forehead with his hand in frustration. Now he would _have_ to go to the cottage- he hadn't seen his mother since Christmas- 4 months ago. He looked over to his calendar thumb-tacked to the wall and noticed with relief that his weekend was generally free. Thank God his boss hadn't scheduled him all weekend like he normally did.

He picked up the phone and dialed his mother, smiling when she answered the phone in disbelief at his voice. "Yeah, I'll be there this weekend- save a spot at lunch for me." He laughed, knowing that if they didn't, his cousins would eat it all first.

The cottage looked as it always had- a small serene lake nestled in the back country of the rural part of the state. It was a nice quiet get-away past a couple miles of dirt road and apple orchards. There were prehistoric snapper turtles, giant big-mouth bass and all sorts of slimy nasty critters swimming in the lake's depths. He was never one for fishing… or catching of any sort of creature. They didn't really appeal to him much- what was the purpose of catching something and then letting it go?  
>Or worse- catching it and then having to skin the poor thing to eat it? Yuck. That's what frozen packages at stores are for.<p>

He looked over at his cousins as they wrestled along the water's edge, others fishing and still more sitting around a fire cooking s'mores.

"Why are you all the way over here?" A soft voice called out behind him, his mother looking at him with concern. "How about you join your cousins in fishing or eating some chocolate and marshmallows?"

Oh yes, and gain 10 pounds over the weekend? "I just like the scenery here- it's relaxing. I'll be fine, mom." He smiled reassuringly to her, hoping he could fool her into believing him. He _really_ didn't want to hang out with his crazy cousins. As if on cue, the twins popped out from behind his mother, grinning at him wryly.

"Ricky, why don't you come fishing with us? Maybe you'll actually catch something this time!" One of the sneered.

"Yeah right, he couldn't catch a minnow if his life depended on it." The other twin snickered, looking over to his brother. The two boys stood there grinning at Richard, as if expecting him to get flustered and take the challenge. Too bad Richard was too old to fall for that trick anymore.

"No boys, I'm just going to relax for today. Maybe someday when you've worked as much as I have you'll understand how nice _peace and quiet_ are." Richard said, trying to put an emphasis on the quiet. He looked to his mother, who was trying to hide a smile behind her hand.

"You're no fun." One of the twins pouted before they both ran off to join the mass-wrestling match taking place on the grass in front of the cottage.

"Go ahead and take a walk sweetie- dinner will be ready soon." His mother smiled to him in amusement and turned back to take control over the boys in the yard. He watched the group of guys that had gathered at the cottage, still wondering why it was that their family had an abnormal amount of boys. Heck he had over a dozen male cousins- and only one girl. He sighed in dismay, hoping he wouldn't have the same luck in the future with his own children. He walked down the side of the lake, avoiding a particularly marshy spot that tended to have nasty leeches and wandered past the ancient willow tree.

This place was always so relaxing- the quiet lake, where the only disturbance was a jumping fish or a crane's long call in the distance. He stopped when he came upon a small stream, looking down at it curiously. He hadn't noticed this before- it was a rather large stream that seemed to feed into the lake. Then again- he usually didn't wander this far off. He caught a glimmer of something in the bottom of the clear water and leaned over to get a closer look. It looked to be some sort of egg or something- strangely shining in the water's depths.

He cried out in surprise as hands pushed him forward into the water, plunging him into the stream until he was fully submerged. He sputtered in surprise at being able to be sinking toward the bottom of what looked like a shallow stream, but the sensation he was feeling was definitely one of falling! He swam back up to the surface, reaching toward the air above only to find the top of the water solid. He yelled in terror as he hit the strange clear top of the water, his lungs burning for air as he fought to break through whatever was blocking him. He writhed as his body protested the lack of oxygen, grabbing at his neck as if that would help him get air.

His vision clouded, black tinting the edges of the world around him until all faded into darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

"Quickly, pull him out of the water!" Richard heard a female voice yell as he groaned in pain from his pounding head. It felt as if someone had bashed him in the skull with a shovel and was now repeatedly slamming his head against a wall. He heard a splash behind him and grunted as he was hoisted up out of the water and brought onto dry land. "Be careful of that gryphon egg, don't break it!"

"Will you be quiet woman, what does it look like I'm doing? Gods this man weighs a ton!" The man pulling him yelled back, letting him fall to the ground with a groan when his head hit the grass painfully.

"Idiot, be careful! He might have head trauma." He heard the girl say, feeling a soft hand touch his cheek. Why did she care if he had head trauma- wait- what had he done that he could even have head trauma? He wasn't the daredevil type of guy.

"Is he breathing?" The man asked, a few feet away now- he didn't sound very comfortable. "We should probably bring him to a healer- maybe he was thrown into The Stream by someone who wanted him dead."

"Will you stop already?" The woman said in annoyance. "He's breathing fine, he just hasn't woken up yet." She said, moving his hair from his face to get a good look at him. She heard him hiss in surprise and wondered what she had seen- had he gotten a nasty cut on his face or something? God he hoped not- his face was one of the only good things about him. "Besides- look at his strange clothing. He can't be from around here."

"Maybe he's from Voltar- they have some strange folk there." The man said in amusement, walking over and looking down at Richard. "'Your princess is in another castle'? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Why would it be written on his robes?"

"How am I supposed to know what it means?" The girl sighed in frustration and Richard groaned in agony as his head was moved, the sensation of dizziness almost enough to make him puke. "I think we should bring him to a healer. Do you have Ipirna with you?"

"Of course- but don't you think we should at least ask him who he is first? He looks so… strange. Plus he smells terrible- like he was dragged through the bad side of town and then thrown into a dump."

The woman stopped, looking over at the man with a dark glare before looking back down at Richard. "Alright- um… can you talk?" She asked uneasily, not wanting to hurt him more by making him talk.

"Ugh." Richard managed, clenching his eyes tightly as the sunlight threatened to burn out his retinas through his eyelids. What the hell was wrong with him? Why was his head pounding so badly, and why did it hurt to move?"

"Do you remember your name and where you come from?" She asked, still holding his head in her lap. He realized where he was- in a strange woman's lap- and struggled a bit before giving up and relaxing. She obviously wasn't going to hurt him.

"Richard. Michigan. Grand Rapids." He managed in bursts of gasps, trying to breathe through the pain blossoming through his body. "Hospital- quick." He said, when he realized he must have a bad concussion of some sort. It was the only explanation for the lurching he was feeling in his skull.

"What's he talking about?" The man said uneasily, leaning over. "Hey- are you from Voltar? Should we take you there after you're healed?"

Voltar? What the hell was that- some sort of village in the middle of nowhere or something? "No- Grand Rapids. Where am I?" He groaned, trying to open his eyes without yelling in pain as the light shot into them, blinding him momentarily.

"You're to the west of The Keep- we found you floating in The Stream- what happened? Did someone attack you?" The girl said, sounding genuinely concerned. Richard kept his eyes open as they focused, looking up at a woman with brown hair and blue eyes- and she was drop dead gorgeous.

"Uh… where?" He faltered for a minute, his usual shyness around pretty girls coming up. Damn him and not being able to talk properly- now he could sound like a complete idiot. He tried to sit up but gasped as the world spun for a minute and he laid back down. "Nope, not going to happen." He groaned in pain, putting a hand up to his forehead to try and stop the dizziness.

"I don't like this." The man grumbled from behind her. Richard looked up to see a man with a similar colored hair, his eyes a bright hazel as he glared down at him. What was biting his ass to make him so grumpy?

"You don't like anything." The girl glared over her shoulder at him and looked back down at Richard. "We're going to take you to a healer- you've obviously hurt your head somehow. Hopefully then we can try and get you back home." She said softly,

"Hopefully healer is a hospital." Richard muttered, feeling the woman start to stand up behind him. He gasped as he was moved again, this time picked up by the man and slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He would try to feel more dignified later- right now he was more concerned with trying not to puke all over the guy's back. He was put over the side of something and looked down to see a white horse's hooves beneath him. He heard fluttering above and froze, looking over to the front of the animal to see wings and two golden horns coming from the horse's head.

Ooooh boy. Yep, he had lost it at long last. Completely and totally insane. That was the only explanation for the creature now looking back at him curiously, intelligence in its golden eyes.

"Hurt a feather on Ipirna and I'll run you through." The man growled at him threateningly before mounting onto the creature's back.

"Don't pay any attention to him, he means well." The woman smiled from beside him. Richard moved his head over to see she was sitting on top of a rather large blue and yellow dragon. He groaned and held his head again, wondering when this madness would stop.

"The Keep is probably the closest- and with the best healers- we'll head there." The man said, glancing back at Richard before clicking twice. The horse ran forward as Richard clung to its back, the large wings on either side of him flapping loudly as it jumped into the air. He yelled in shock as they shot into the sky, scrambling to get a better hold on the horse's back as he watched the ground get smaller and smaller below them.

"Please wake up, please wake up." He muttered to himself, as if he could try and wake from a bad dream- this couldn't be happening- horse's couldn't fly, dragons didn't exist and he had NO idea what the hell The Keep was. He clung to the strange creature as they flew, hoping this would all be over soon and he would wake up in the middle of the lake with fish nibbling at him curiously. Yeah- he must be dreaming…


	3. Chapter 3

Richard looked down at the castle below, staring in shock at the stone towers and the sheer size of the building. There must be thousands of people walking around the castle below- all of them looking like tiny dots of color against the green below.  
>"Hold on, we're going to go down." The man in front of him on the horse said, glancing back at him before the horse plummeted down toward the ground, its wings tucked at its side. Richard yelled in terror as the ground became larger and larger, his head spinning wildly at the sensation of falling until his vision blacked out.<p>

He awoke on a table, low chanting coming from beside him as he shivered from the cold stone against his bare back. He opened his eyes, looking around him at the softly glowing water running in a swirling pattern out from the stone table he was laying on.

"What the hell?" He yelled in surprise, sitting up quickly and realizing he no longer felt dizzy. He looked around in concern to see the woman from earlier standing near the wall of the large circular room, a tall man standing beside her and looking very uncomfortable. "Where am I?"

"You're in the healing room of The Keep." A small girl said from beside the table as the chanting stopped. Richard looked over at her, realizing she must have been doing the strange chanting. Oh no- he hadn't stumbled into some creepy cult, did he?

"Healing?" He muttered to himself in confusion, raising his hand up to his head to feel his scalp, but felt nothing other than his brown hair. How did he suddenly feel so much better? He knew concussions usually took at least a week to heal- he had gotten one in high school from a football game.

The small girl looked at him in concern and turned toward the other two. "I've healed him all I could- physically he's fine, but whatever may have happened to his mind may be entirely psychological."

"Great, so he's a nutcase." The man sighed in dismay, glaring at Richard. "All we need now is another problem to weigh us down."

"Oh shut up, Zack." The woman glared at him fiercely. "Are you honestly saying you would have left him floating in the water like that?"

"Wait- water?" Richard said with wide eyes. "I was pushed into a stream… I must be dreaming- I just hope I'm not dead or something." He put a hand up to his face in frustration. He looked down at himself, noticing his shirt was gone. "Hey- where did my t-shirt go? It was one of my favorites."

"Your strange robes?" The woman said curiously. "We put them over on that table." She pointed to the table next to the man on the other side of the room, who glanced down at the shirt with disdain.

Richard stood up and jumped off the table, walking across the room to get his shirt. He glanced at the woman, noticing with some interest that a slight blush was coloring her cheeks, and a scowl on the man's face. "Well, thanks for saving me." He said before putting on his shirt and pulling it down.

"No problem. What were you doing in The Stream, anyway? Did someone throw you in?" The woman said in concern, looking more comfortable now that he had a shirt on.

"Ah… yeah, I suppose you could say that. More like pushed me in." Richard grinned wryly, glancing over to the small woman who was cleaning herbs from the table. "Hey- thanks for uh... 'healing' my head."

"No problem." The woman smiled, looking down at the ground and taking a large vase from the corner of the room. She kneeled down next to the channels in the ground that the water flowed through, holding a hand over the liquid.

"What are-" Richard stared in shock as the water flowed from the ground and into the vase, running against the girl's hand. He stared with wide eyes until the water was entirely in the vase, none remaining on the ground. "How the hell did you DO that?" he asked in confusion.

"How?" The woman looked up at him curiously. "I'm a water magi." She shrugged, as if that explained everything.

"Magi?" Richard glanced back at the woman who had helped him out of the stream, who was only looking at him with a worried expression.

"Do you not know what a magi is? How can you not know?" She whispered in confusion.

"He's lost it." The man scoffed. "Just be done with him, Ari- there's no use helping a guy like that. He'll never get back whatever was in that jobbled brain of his."

"I haven't lost it!" Richard yelled in frustration. "Quit saying I have- I'm in some strange place, with a girl who can control water! How am I supposed to react? It's not as if it's a normal thing."

The man and woman glanced at each other uneasily. "Yes… it is." She whispered. "There are many magi in the world- and all of them can use magi to some degree."

"Magic?" Richard scoffed. "There's no such thing- it's all illusions and tricks. God, I need to lay off the D and D." He ran a hand through his hair nervously. "If this is the kind of dream it's making, maybe I'm getting way too involved."

"You're not dreaming." The man said, now looking curious as he stared at Richard. "You think all of this is just a dream you're in?"

"What else would it be? None of this can actually happen." Richard looked at the large horse-like creature behind the man, who was looking at him with curiosity as well.

"So, how would you prove this isn't a dream, then?" The man asked, a wry smile covering his face.

"I don't know." Richard said, uneasy at the sudden grin on the man's face. "Pinching, I guess? Pain of some sort will usually wake a person up."

"Oh- that's easy enough." The man grinned. He reached into his pocket, the girl beside him yelling in protest and grabbing at his arm as he raised it. He glanced down at her and shrugged, something shooting from his hand and heading toward Richard.

Richard yelled in surprise and stepped back as the bullet headed toward him, time seeming to slow down as it headed toward his chest. He closed his eyes, preparing for the pain to flare as a wind flurried around him, blowing his hair and sending him flying backwards to fall against the ground. He stared at the wind as it swirled around him, a strange white glow filtering through the air as it twisted and turned.  
>"What's going on?" Richard yelled, trying to move away from the wind, but only to have it follow after him and continue to swirl around him.<p>

"Interesting." The man grinned. "We have ourselves an air magi."


	4. Chapter 4

Richard watched the small tornado whirling around his feet with wide eyes, wondering what was going on. He scooted back again, only to have the small wind follow him as if attached.  
>"What the hell is going on? What IS that thing?" He stared down at the wind warily.<p>

"That's your magic." The girl said, raising her eyebrows curiously. "By the looks of your reaction, you had no idea you were an air magi."

"No, of course not!" Richard yelled in frustration. "I'm just a regular guy- there's no such thing as magic, not for real." He stared down at the wind. It looked real… he put his hand around the wind, feeling the churning air around the small tornado as it spun. It felt real… there was NO WAY it was real, though!

"I must be hallucinating or something." He said, a frightened chuckle coming out of him. "That's right… this must be a very realistic hallucination. I'm probably lying in the hospital somewhere unconscious." He said, trying to rationalize what he was seeing.

"Why is it so hard to believe that magic exists? It always has." The man growled in frustration, walking over to him. He took his large boot and stepped on the tornado, making it dissipate and Richard felt a sharp pain shoot through his chest, making him gasp in shock.

"Magic is connected to you- it's in your soul, and it defended you. If you don't believe in it, how can you seriously say you're sane? Everyone has magic to some extent- even the creatures in this world." The man insisted, the tornado still gone when he raised his boot again.

"Zack, calm down." The woman put a hand on his shoulder, making him grumble, but step back from Richard. She kneeled down next to him, watching him thoughtfully for a minute. "The healer said you were completely healed- and you obviously can function well. Do you remember what happened to you to get here? Obviously you fell in the stream-…what happened before that?"

"I was at the cottage- and I was just looking at a weird fish… I hadn't seen one like it before, and so I leaned in, an something pushed me into the water. Last thing I knew I was sinking." Richard explained relieved that the girl was so much more calm than her counterpart.

"Hmm… where were you when you fell in? Near Voltar?" She asked, tilting her head curiously.

"No… in Michigan. What's Voltar?" He asked, blinking in surprise.

The woman and man looked at each other uneasily before she turned back to Richard. "I want you to tell me what you remember about your past- who are you?"

"Hold on- I don't even know who you two are." Richard said suddenly, looking at them warily. "Why should I reveal everything that I am when I don't even know your names?"

"My name is Ariessa." The woman said simply, and pointed to the man. "And this is my brother, Zachary."

Zack nodded once in greeting, a frown still on his face. "We're both earth magi. Now tell us what you know."

Richard looked up at him uneasily before looking back to Ariessa. "I'm from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I studied Microbiology at Grand Valley State University." Richard rubbed his head, which was starting to throb from the stress. "I'm the first son of my family, and I work at L-" He froze, his eyes shooting open wide. "OH GOD! My job! What day is it- what time is it?" He yelled in terror. "I'll be fired- I can't lose my job, I'll lost my apartment too!"

"Calm down!" Zack yelled, knocking him in the leg with his boot. "Your health is more important that whatever an apartment is."

Richard groaned in frustration, rubbing a hand over his head in agony. "I have to find a way to get back soon… I can't be stuck here."

Ariessa raised an eyebrow in interest. "Stuck? What do you mean by that?"

"Well this obviously isn't what I'm used to." Richard said, looking around the room. "If this were a hospital there'd be machines everywhere monitoring me and there wouldn't be…" He looked down at the winding pattern of impressions on the floor. "Whatever this stuff is."

"Machines?" Zackary looked at him skeptically. "What's that supposed to be?"

"Oh God… this is not good." Richard moaned. "You don't know what a machine is?"

"Hey-" Ariessa elbowed Zackary to get his interest. "I think he means those strange contraptions the alchemists make."

"Oh." Zackary wrinkled his nose in distaste. "A non-magic device."

"You'll have to excuse him- he likes his magic a bit much." Ariessa said, seeing Richard's confused expression.

"Wait-" Richard said suddenly, reaching into his back pocket. He grinned happily when he felt his iphone in his pocket still and took it out, frowning when he saw the screen filled with water. "Crap." He cursed in frustration.

"What's what?" Ariessa said in interest, kneeling next to him to look at the strange object.

"It's a machine." Richard held it up to show her. "It's something that allows me to talk to others who have something similar to it, even though they're far away."

Zachary looked down at the device as well, trying not to look too interested.

"Interesting- does it work?" Ariessa took the iphone, turning it around in her hands to inspect it.

"I'm not sure… it may be broken from all the water." Richard frowned as he touched the screen, grinning happily when it lit up. He clicked the camera and held it up to Ariessa, who blinked in confusion as she noticed the small light blinking on the back before a bright flash filled the room.

"AGH!" She yelled in surprise, covering her hands as Zack moved in front of her, looking down at Richard angrily.

"Calm down- it's just a camera!" Richard said, noticing three more pebbles suddenly in Zachary's hand, floating threateningly in front of him.

"A-a what?" Ariessa asked, rubbing her eyes to try and get them focused again.

"Here- look." Richard turned the phone around to show her the picture of her looking curiously into the lense.

Zackary took the camera and stared at it with wide eyes, looking from Ariessa and then back into the screen. "What… did you do to her? Did it hurt?" He looked to her in concern.

"No, not at all." Ariessa said, taking the phone from him and looking at it with wide eyes as well. "Gods, my hair looks terrible." She muttered, running a hand through her hair as Zack rolled his eyes in dismay.  
>"It just takes an image of her. Think of taking what you see right now, and freezing it, and storing it in here." He took the phone, opening up his photo gallery. He handed it back to them to see. "These are pictures I took around town and the cottage." He shrugged.<p>

Zack and Ariessa stared at the screen as the pictures scanned by in a slideshow, towering skyscrapers in a cityscape, a small fawn eating grass in a backyard, his lop-eared dog, his twin cousins out on a motor boat on the lake fishing…

"Ari… I don't think he's from around here." Zack said, his voice hitching from the shock of seeing such images.

"I don't think so either." Ari whispered in surprise. She looked up at Richard in surprise. "Where did you say you were from again?"

"Michigan." Richard said simply. "America- Earth if you need that too."

Ariessa and Zachary looked at each other, Zack putting a hand to his forehead as he tried to think through what he was hearing. Ariessa turned back toward Richard. "I think, Richard, you're from an entire different world. I have no idea how you got her, but maybe we can find a way to get you back."

Richard stared in shock for a minute. "What do you mean 'different world'?"

Zack chuckled uneasily, taking his hand away from his face. "Maybe we should show him the keep to prove what we mean."

"If he doesn't freak out like with the enox." Arianna sighed in frustration. She held out a hand to help Richard up off the floor and smiled wryly. "Ready for a bit of a shock?"

Richard nodded uneasily, wondering what they were talking about.


End file.
